The present invention relates generally to rule database methods, and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for dynamically integrating a set of design intents into salient manifestations.
In order to quickly and easily make design modifications; engineering rules defining a design intent needs to be associated with geometry represented in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) computer program. These engineering rules are often expressed using mathematical equations accompanied by pictures, sketches, tables and plots. The number of rules needed to describe simple designs may be rather large, and certainly the number of rules associated with complex designs such as an aircraft engine or automobile will be extremely large.
Typically, an existing Knowledge Based Engineering tool employs geometry that resides primarily in an embedded graphics package. This graphics package is generally inferior to commercial computer aided design (CAD) packages. For example, the graphics package may not have certain detailed features as that of the commercial computer aided design (CAD) packages or functionality to create complex curves. In addition, internal geometry may be simply exported without association to original rules and parameters to computer aided design (CAD) packages, whereby valuable information may be lost.
It is noted that existing CAD packages are inadequate in that when it comes to defining engineering rules that are not directly related to geometry, such as the minimization of stress or temperature, the existing methods cannot adequately address these issues.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the method comprises creating a database; converting a set of symbolic equations to spreadsheet formula; writing spreadsheet formula to a spreadsheet; and sharing a set of parameters of the database with a computer aided design geometry.
The present invention documents rules in a clear, detailed manner. Further, the rules may be organized, filtered and sorted, as well as associated with the appropriate CAD geometry so that the rules drive geometry changes to valid or optimal states. Furthermore, a simple approach to create, find, edit, sort, and correctly sequence the rules is provided. A mechanism is provided to associate those rules with CAD geometry. A combination of an easy to use database of rules and the association of those rules to CAD geometry, is an important feature of the invention. In the past, a number of CAD programs have attempted to provide a link from the CAD geometry to engineering rules, in other words, to approach the problem from the opposite direction. Typically these approaches fall short when it comes to adequately defining engineering rules which do not directly relate to geometry (such as the minimization of stress or temperature).
A number of attempts have been made to address the problem of linking engineering rules to CAD geometry. Other methods allow a user to associate engineering equations to geometry using a unique embedded programming language. These other methods use a translation package to convert the geometry from one format to that of other CAD products.
Thus, the present invention provides a method for recording, documenting, organizing, filtering, sorting and correctly sequencing engineering rules and associating those rules to their respective geometry in a CAD computer program. The method disclosed here allows logical design modifications to be driven by engineering rules having the resulting geometry generated in a CAD package. The method provides a tool that captures engineering rules and associates those rules to CAD geometry.